It is a reflection of just how important the 15th District Congressional seat is in Pennsylvania that a year out we already have a campaign. It might not be as spirited as the Sestak-Toomey battle for Senate (but they keep forgetting Arlen Specter is the incumbent).
In the 15th, Charlie Dent may face his toughest challenge in Mayor John Callahan. There are few candidates that the Democrats could put up against him who will be stronger. Dent, a Republican who won in a landslide in 2008 (how many Republicans can say that), is on the precipice of becoming invincible. He will soon take on Dan Flood or Joe McDade status if he is not beaten. Maybe, Don Cunningham could put up a fight better than Callahan but that is probably it.
So, 2010 will be a watershed year in the 15th. It annoys Democrats that Dent has continued Republican control of the district (as successor to Pat Toomey). After all, it is one of the most heavily unionized districts in the country and has a Democratic voting registration edge. Still, Dent has easily beaten back all challengers and he destroyed Sam Bennett last time out. A victory over Callahan in 2010 and Dent has to start thinking statewide office or maybe a run in 2014 against Bob Casey Lite.
Dent wins elections in this Democratic area because, despite attempts to portray him as George Bush’s lap dog in 2008, he has a fairly pragmatic approach that reflects the ideals of blue collar Democrats and more moderate Republicans (and that is the Lehigh Valley). Plus, he has always had the best hair in the campaign.
In any event, the campaign has started. Shawn Millan, the uber-manager of Dent’s campaigns and as good as they get (heck, I think he had to deal with a half dozen Bennett managers last time around and it really seemed like one of those exhibition games between the New York Yankees and the AAA Scranton Yankees), sent out a Press Release yesterday slamming Callahan. It is clear they want to take as much of the Wonder Boy image away from Callahan and portray him as the lucky successor to Don Cunningham. Is Callahan really Cunningham Lite? Don’t know.
A month or so ago, Millan blasted Callahan for not taking a position on health care. Fair or not, it was smart politics. Charlie has to cast votes on health care, cap-and-trade and other key issues while Callahan deals with City of Bethlehem issues and need not go on the record.
But let’s see what Shawn has to say this time in the release entitled Callahan’s Bethlehem Budget, Spending & Tax Follies: And He Wants to Go to Congress?:
“If taxpayers are wondering what type of Congressman John Callahan would be, they just need to look at his record as Mayor of Bethlehem.
While Callahan is busy running for two offices at the same time, local news media reported that an audit of the City of Bethlehem’s 2008 Budget showed a deficit of $2.7 million.”
My take: These decisions to declare early—Callahan declared several months ago—carry a danger for sitting mayors and county executives. You start to get blamed for not doing your day job. No doubt part of that was behind Don Cunningham’s decision to announce very early that he would not run for governor. While he is still busy raising funds that he does not need in 2009, nobody can point to what he is running for. Callahan on the other hand is announced for Congress and so he is vulnerable to those attacks. One still wonders if Callahan announced early to keep others out of the race. A week or so before he announced, a prominent GOP opined (off the record) that he was not going to run and that Cunningham would. So, was it a pre-emptive strike or is he keeping the spot warm? Time will tell.
Shawn goes on:
“Even the Democrat Chairman of Bethlehem City Council’s Finance Committee said that Callahan’s overspending the budget was “unacceptable.”
Did Mayor Callahan consider for a moment that the nearly $3 million deficit was the result of overspending? No. His Administration blamed the deficit on their inability to continue his longstanding practice of raiding other city funds (like the Water Authority) to cover holes in the City’s General Fund Budget. In other words Callahan uses non-recurring revenue to pay for recurring expenditures.”
Well, at least we have a common definition of balanced budgets coming out of Bethlehem. They don’t have to be balanced currently as long as you have funds to tap. Cunningham-lite once again. It seems like the same story playing out on the county stage. Just what we need in Congress is someone who can’t balance a budget seems to be the argument. After all, Congressmen don’t need to balance the budget. The federal government can run deficits as we all know.
Millan continues
““Mayor Callahan wants voters to believe that things are looking better for Bethlehem’s finances in the coming year. In fact, Bethlehem will receive millions of dollars for hosting a casino. So can city residents expect the tax relief they were promised in exchange for opening their community to gambling? No.
“Mayor Callahan has built up such a mountain of debt that it is highly unlikely he’ll be able to offer property tax relief at a time when people could certainly use it,” said Shawn Millan, Dent’s campaign manager.”
Those gambling dollars, of course, are just another case of a tax shell game. OK, maybe the gamblers are from Jersey, so we are net winners, but gambling revenue is taxation in another form and did anyone really believe we would see meaningful tax relief? Of course not. The trend of government is to spend every penny they get and then when revenues fall, to raise taxes to match the bloated spending. Seems to be alive and well at many levels of government.
The Press Release ends “The people of Bethlehem won’t get property tax relief, but if John Callahan has his way the taxpayers will pay $1.5 million for a skateboarding park. “These are the same misguided priorities and out-of-control spending that Mayor Callahan supported by saying he backed the failed Stimulus Bill. We’re in the middle of tough economic times, but you would never know it from the way the Mayor spends taxpayers’ money,” Congressman Charlie Dent said.
As Mayor of Bethlehem John Callahan has raised property taxes, imposed a $52 municipal services tax for people working in Bethlehem, fought to increase the sales tax, ran up a $2.7 million budget deficit, sank the City’s Water Authority with debt and thinks that $1.5 million of taxpayer money for a skate park is prudent spending as opposed to giving the people of Bethlehem tax relief.
“This is the record that Washington Democrats think qualifies John Callahan to serve in Congress. If you want to know what kind of Congressman Callahan would be, here’s your answer: he’ll be the sort of Congressman that Speaker Nancy Pelosi just gave $4,000 to elect,” Congressman Dent stated. “”
You do wonder how in these times anyone could propose $1.5 million for a skateboarding park regardless of where the money came from. Even if it came from a donation by a private citizen, you’d wonder about the optics of building a skate park while we slash human services.
Read the release. Come to your own conclusions. If I get releases from Callahan, I’ll publish them as well.
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Comments
One thing is clear to me. Callahan can't manage money and Dent is a moderate conservative(whatever THAT means!). Is there anyone else running in the 15th, a candidate that the voters can trust to use money ONLY when constitutionally allowed?
Answer: Jake Towne
towneforcongress.com
On his website you'll find what Towne has written about bailouts and money. Very interesting.
I believe Mr. Callahan needs some basic education on Article 8 Section 1 of the Constitution, and unfortunately Cong. Dent has been violating that Article's section, along with several others and should know better.
It's now time for the Jake Towne's of this Country to step forward, and return us back to how our Founding Father's envisioned our future and that of our families.
Visit Jake's website at www.towneforcongress.com
Callahan has had some spending follies??? How about Dent himself?! Isn't voting to give $700 million+ to irresponsible banks a folly? How about votes for perpetual war which is helping bankrupt the nation.
Try Mr. Jake Towne, running as an independent against Dent and Callahan. We NEED representatives who will only vote for spending with in the government's means. YOU have to balance YOUR books, so why shouldn't the government do the same?
I've been hearing about Jake Towne from different sources, and I was wondering if Kenneth Petrini or the Examiner know anything about Jake Towne? if so, I would be interested in knowing what you think about him. His website is towneforcongress.com.
Thank you for your great article Kenneth,
Joseph Sneddon
Nice to see the Towne for Congress machine is working. If Jake would like to send a press release out or even an e-mail statement, I would be happy to publish it and dissect it as I do with others. E-mail is petrinikr@aol.com
Whether its Jake (Towne) or anyone else, can SOMEONE find a single bone of integrity and START OBEYING THE LAW??? (I refer here to the Supreme Law of the Land, our Constitution.) While I've met Jake and I can say I believe he intends to obey her, I also believe that requires an awake and alert public to vote for some such soul. The skeptic in me is hesitant to acknowledge such a public still exists. Good luck Jake!
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